Tag Archives: india

Charlie Savage / New York Times : US Office of the Director of National Intelligence report: NSA collected 534M metadata records from US telecommunications providers in 2017, up 3x from 2016 — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency vacuumed up more than 534 million records of phone calls and text messages …

Charlie Savage / New York Times : N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency vacuumed up more than 534 million records of phone calls and text messages from American telecommunications providers like AT&T and Verizon last year — more than three times what it collected in 2016 …

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica : A look at Tesla Autopilot's safety tech as NHTSA distances itself from its own finding, often cited by Tesla, that Autopilot reduces crash rates by up to 40% — The feds just threw Tesla under the bus on Autopilot safety. — Elon Musk is angry at the media for focusing on the Autopilot-related crash …

Sherri L. Smith / Tom's Guide : Lenovo Mirage Solo review: a great wireless, standalone VR experience with Daydream WorldSense tech and 110° FoV but less content and 2x as pricey as Oculus Go — For a while now, there have been limitations on what you could do in virtual reality. You could walk around the room, but you were tethered to a PC.

Ubergizmo HMD Global Launches Nokia 6.1 In The US Ubergizmo Fans of Nokia-branded smartphones in the United States will soon be able to pick up a new device. HMD Global, the Finnish company that's now making Nokia devices, today announced that it's going to start selling the Nokia 6.1 in the United States. It's ... and more »

Walmart’s strategy to get itself fighting fit against Amazon saw one more development today. This morning, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s announced a deal with Walmart to buy a majority stake in Asda, Walmart’s wholly-owned UK subsidiary. The deal values Asda at £7.3 billion, and (if it closes) will net Walmart £2.975 billion in cash, a 42 percent share of the combined business as a “long-term shareholder”, and 29.9 percent voting rights in the combined entity, which will include 2,800 Sainsbury’s, Asda and Argos stores and 330,000 employees in the country. The news underscores how Walmart, off the back of a challenging quarter of e-commerce sales in the crucial holiday period (news that shook investors enough to send Walmart’s sock tumbling ), is still trying to figure out the right mix of its business to fight off not just current retail competition, but also whatever form its competition might take in the future. At the moment, the one big common rival in both of those scenarios is Amazon. In the US, Walmart has been trying out multiple routes for consumers to shop in new ways that address the kinds of options that the likes of Amazon now offers them. Targeting different geographies and demographics, Walmart has made big bets like its $3 billion acquisition of Jet.com ; expanding its own new delivery services , and payment and return methods; as well as running pilots with various third parties like Postmates and DoorDash . Internationally, it’s a different story. Walmart has a significantly reduced presence — its international business in aggregate is around one-third the size of its US business, $118 million in FY2017 versus $318 million. And with no clearly dominant position in any of its international markets, this has led the company to consider a variety of other options to figure out the best way forward. “This proposed merger represents a unique and bold opportunity, consistent with our strategy of looking for new ways to drive international growth,” said Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart International, in a statement. “Asda became part of Walmart nearly 20 years ago, and it is a great business and an important part of our portfolio, acting as a source of best practices, new ideas and talent for Walmart businesses around the world.

Updat: This post has been updated to indicate that DP World invested in 2016. The firm is based in the UAE. Virgin Hyperloop One and DP World are launching a new joint venture, DP World Cargospeed, two years after the high-speed transportation technology developer tapped the UAE-based shipping company in a $50 million financing. The company’s stated goal is to deliver palletized cargo more efficiently by combining super high-speed promise of hyperloop transportation with new logistics technologies to accelerate deliveries along Virgin Hyperloop One’s planned routes between Mumbai and Pune in India; in Saudi Arabia, and in the United Arab Emirates. Introducing DP World Cargospeed pic.twitter.com/KvnzdKZ0NE — Virgin Hyperloop One (@HyperloopOne) April 29, 2018 Announced with much fanfare and in the presence of Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and Virgin Hyperloop chairman Richard Branson, the new company is basically built on buzzwords like “on-demand” and the promise of future performance. Right now there’re only 10 kilometers of Virgin Hyperloop track being built (and they’re all in India). Although there’s not much more than a bunch of pontificating palaver around hyperloop technologies now, the startup companies and their corporate backers do present an compelling vision of the future of transportation. As China sinks billions into a new silk road to connect the world to its powerful new economic engine, incredibly fast, incredibly efficient logistics will become increasingly important — especially if it can be made more environmentally sustainable by harnessing renewable energy. “The global growth of e-commerce is driving a dramatic shift in both consumer and business behavior. On-demand deliveries are a novelty today. Tomorrow it will be the expectation,” Branson said in a statement announcing the new company. “DP World Cargospeed systems powered by Virgin Hyperloop One will enable ultra-fast, on-demand deliveries of high-priority goods and can revolutionise logistics, support economic zones, and create thriving economic megaregions.” .

High-profile U.S. startup accelerator Y Combinator is making a push to bring more China-based startups into its program after it announced its first official event in the country. YC has made a push to include startups from outside of North America in recent years. That has seen it bring in companies from the likes of India, Southeast Asia and Africa, but China remains underrepresented. According to YC’s own data , fewer than 10 Chinese companies have passed through its corridors. YC counts over 1,400 graduates. “Startup School Beijing” is scheduled for May 19 in the Chinese capital at Tsinghua University. The event will be free to attend — though attendees might apply for a ticket — with the goal of showing the benefits of participation in its U.S. program. To help make its case, the organization has pulled in star graduates like Airbnb and Stripe while its president Sam Altman himself is scheduled to appear. The event will include sessions with graduates, YC partners and “live on-stage office hours.” That’ll see three companies picked from the audience to get advice and tips from the attending partners, as happens in the program.

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